1) New bee colonies in the spring need to be fed 1:1 syrup to stimulate comb building and brood rearing since they lack honey stores. The entrance should be restricted when feeding to prevent robbing. 2) To prevent swarming, the beekeeper should checkerboard frames, keep ahead of honey production with extra supers, and perform artificial swarm splits by moving the queen and some frames to a new hive while removing queen cells from the original hive. 3) Weak colonies in late spring/summer can be strengthened by exchanging frames of sealed brood from strong colonies and providing more space with additional supers as the existing supers fill with half to two-thirds of honey.

1. Colony Management
Beginning Beekeeping
January 15, 2015
Instructor: Rick Bledsoe

2. Management of Newly Established
Colonies in Spring
- New colonies from packages, nucs, splits or swarms
- Feed: 1:1 syrup
-they don't have stores
-stimulates comb building and
brood rearing

6. When feeding:
- restrict entrance
- good idea whenever feeding
- small colony less able to defend against robbers
- make sure they have space to expand--add hive
bodies/supers

7. Swarming

8. - Natural impulse to propagate species
- triggered by "feeling" hive can go on with
half the bees
- plenty of honey stores
- queen runs out of space to lay
- decreased laying-->decreased queen
pheromone--bees sense this, build
“swarm cells”
Swarm Management

9. Swarming
- bees fill up on honey
- old queen and half of bees leave, settle
nearby, send out scouts
- usually mid to late morning (can be
early afternoon)
- may stay 30 minutes to 3 days
* Swarms are bad: drop in population,
honey production, after-swarms

11. Bees make queen cups/cells:
Swarm Management

12. Important to differentiate between
swarm cells and supercedure cells

16. May see increase in drones/drone cells
Swarm Management

17. May see increase in drones/drone cells
Swarm Management

18. Swarm Prevention

19. Checkerboarding:
Swarm Prevention

20. Keep ahead of honey production with supers:
In spring “over super” to
Keep up with the nectar flow
Swarm Prevention

21. Artificial swarm-split :
1- Move queen, one frame
each of sealed brood and
honey to nuc.
Swarm Prevention

22. Artificial swarm-split :
1- Move queen, one frame 2- Move nuc
each of sealed brood and (ideally over 2 miles)
honey to nuc.
3- Remove all swarm cells from original hive and
install new queen OR leave frame with swarm cell or
eggs for bees to make new queen
Swarm Prevention

23. Artificial swarm-split :
-- Original hive thinks a swarm occured
-- You get a new hive without setting back original
hive
-- Note: you must remove extra queen cells from
original hive—destroy or use to make
additional nucs/hives
Swarm Prevention

24. 1) Exchanging their positions with strong colonies in
the same yard:
Strengthen weak colonies by:

25. Strengthen weak colonies by:
2) adding sealed brood from strong disease-free
colonies

27. Late Spring & Summer
Management

28. - continue to check for queen cells
- check for failing queen
Late Spring and Summer Management

31. Give plenty of room by adding supers
- when super 1/2 - 2/3 full, add another
- nectar high % water, need more space to dry it
- open comb stimulates nectar gathering
Late Spring and Summer Management

32. Fall
Management

33. Goal: prepare bees to get through winter (bees
are always preparing for winter)
- "under super" -- consolidate hive, brood in bottom
- treat for mites if needed
- remove queen excluders
Fall Management

34. Why requeen?
-- first year queen is less likely to swarm
-- improve genetics for desired traits
(VSH, improved honey production, better
wintering or just mean bees)
-- replace failing queen
-- break in brood cycle
- brood disease
- decrease varroa
Requeening

35. Spring vs fall
- Spring
- first year queen less likely to swarm
- easier to find queen due to lower population
- nectar flow leads to better acceptance of
new queen
- may only be able to get "southern" queens
Requeening

36. - Fall
- better choice of queen sources
- if you requeen late in year, may not get a second
chance
- may be fewer drones available
- may not have good nectar flow, more problems
with acceptance
- late queens less likely to swarm next spring
Requeening

37. How to requeen
- find old queen and remove (be sure you have
replacement available)
- insert queen cage with candy plug--recheck in a
week
Requeening

38. - more likely during dearth
- small and weak colonies more susceptible
Robbing

40. Prevention is important
- do not open hives during dearth
- entrance reducers when feeding (screen works
better)
- do not open-feed close to hives
Robbing

41. Robber screens/entrance reducers
Robbing

42. - water
- pollen
- Proteins, vitamins,
minerals, and fats
- nectar/honey
Feeding

43. Supplemental feeding
- spring: 1:1 syrup
- fall:
- 2:1 syrup
(must be above 50F)
- solid sugar
- fondant/sugar cakes
- mountain camp/or pour on inner cover
Feeding

44. “Mountain Camp”
Method
Newspaper placed
directly on top bars
with sugar on top

45. Sugar Cakes
2 cups sugar
¼ cup water
1. Pour sugar in
container
2. Add water—just
enough to make it lumpy;
too much and it won't set
up
3. Microwave 1 minute—
Caution: HOT
4. Allow to cool and pop
out of mold

46. Supplemental feeding (continued)
- frames of honey (must be known, disease-free
source)
Never feed store-bought honey !
Feeding

47. Early Spring Management of
Overwintered Colonies

48. - check periodically over winter for hive weight
- most hives starve in February, March
- do not open hive below 40F
- be ready for emergency feeding
- consider feeding pollen patties
- clean up and seal any deadouts;
try to determine why died
Early Spring Management of
Overwintered Colonies

49. Temperature for checking hive
Early Spring Management of
Overwintered Colonies

50. "Spring cleaning"
- bottom board
- damaged frames,
old comb (4 years)
Early Spring Management of
Overwintered Colonies

51. Reverse hive bodies
- wait until warm
- keep brood in cluster formation
Be mindful of pests & disease, particularly nosema
and varroa
Early Spring Management of
Overwintered Colonies

53. - even split (aka side-by-side split): take hive
and divide up equally. In a week switch them.
Making Splits or Increases

54. Walk away split:
- take 1 frame of eggs
- 2 frames of emerging brood
- 2 frames of pollen and honey
- put in a 5 frame nuc
- shake in some extra nurse bees (be sure not to
get the queen)
- put the cover on and walk away
- check in 4 weeks to see if the queen is laying
Making Splits or Increases

55. Things to remember about splits:
- both hives must have a queen or resources to make
one
- both need adequate supply of honey and pollen to
feed the brood and themselves
- make sure both hives have adequate number of
bees
- keep brood frames together
- “you can raise bees or make honey, but not both”
Making Splits or Increases

56. Summary
- Bees always preparing for winter
- Bees will swarm—manage them to your gain
- Take your losses in the fall
- From time to time you will have to make splits and
combine hives
- Drawn comb is valuable—protect it